Photo by Colter Brown, Schreiner graduate ’05

Standing with her students in the middle of London’s Trafalgar Square seven days after a series of bombings crippled the city, Schreiner University English Professor Dr. Lydia Kualapai was moved by the spirit of the people and the city itself. She said that she got goose bumps there at the junction of some of the busiest streets in London, during the two-minute silence observed at the “London Unite” rally. “All of London just stopped. There was not a car, a bus, a person…nothing moved. It was truly amazing,” she said. “I can’t really express how we felt there. It really speaks of how together that city really is.”

Dr. Kualapai was accompanied by Schreiner University students, faculty, staff, and Hill Country community members on the London trip, part of Schreiner’s Study Abroad program.

The program offers a series of trips as extensions of spring semester course work each year. The trips are open to students and their families, faculty and staff, former students and community members and range in cost from $1,250 to $2,250. This year the group left July 11, four days after a series of four bomb attacks struck London’s public transit system during the morning rush hour. At 8:50 a.m., three bombs exploded within 50 seconds of each other on three London Underground trains. A fourth bomb exploded on a bus at 9:47 a.m. in Tavistock Square. Fifty-six people were killed in the attacks, including the four suspected bombers, and 700 people were injured. The bombings caused a severe daylong disruption of the city’s transportation and mobile telecommunications system. Al-Qaida claimed responsibility for the attacks. The same group is responsible for the hijacked jetliners that hit the World Trade Center buildings in New York and the Pentagon in Washington on September 11, 2001. A fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania on the same day. The London bombings four years later were on the first full day of the 31st G8 Summit, and one day after London was chosen to host the 2012 Summer Olympics. Martha York, coordinator for international education at Schreiner University, said no one backed out of the planned departure. Dr. Kualapai, who created a visually lush and moving photo album of the group’s time in London -- see it on Schreiner’s Web site at www.schreiner.edu/london/index.html --  said the aftereffects of the July 7 bombing were evident everywhere throughout the group’s time in London, from the recovery of casualties from Aldgate Station where one of the bombings took place, to the transformation of the normally quiet Gower Street where they lodged into a bustling thoroughfare due to diverted traffic. “Security was much higher than the year before,” she said. “People seemed to get back to normal pretty quickly, but you could feel an undercurrent of tension there.” Photo by Elijah Stone, Schreiner graduate ’05 Schreiner University student and staff member, Terri Van Kirk, participated in the trip with her daughter and fellow Schreiner student, Katherine Van Kirk. “I was pretty apprehensive about taking the trip right after the bombing, especially since I had never traveled out of the country before,” Terri Van Kirk said. “I expected it to be really chaotic over there, but it wasn’t like that at all.” Then came July 21, just four days before the group was set to return home, when a second series of four explosions rocked the London Underground and a London bus. Fortunately, only the detonators of the bombs exploded. No one was killed and there was only one injury reported. The incident occurred not far from the house at 35 Gower Street where the group was staying. “When it happened I didn’t know what to think. I was really worried about everyone in the house making it back safely,” said Katherine Van Kirk. “I held it together until we got back to the house and then I just broke down.” Despite the scary moments—or maybe because of them—many people on the trip had their view of themselves and the place where they live expanded. “It is interesting to see ourselves reflected in someone else’s mirror,” Dr. Kualapai said. Katherine Van Kirk said this about it: “It really opened my eyes to the fact that we are all human and we all want the same things. We tend to think everything is so different (in another country) but really it’s not.” The trip also gave those participating a first-hand view of the sights and sounds of one of the most vibrant cities in the world. A photo album of the trip was created using students’ aesthetics course work associated with the trip. Each student on the trip was responsible for a portion of the pictures and the text that compose the album. It captures the vibrancy of the colors at the Royal Botanic Kew Gardens, and there is Hampton Court Palace, which offers an overview of architectural history along with stunning landscaping. St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Tower of London, the British Museum, the list goes on and on, as will the trips that give students a chance to experience other cities and countries first-hand. “The London trip invites students to study the philosophical and political implications of the aesthetic experience from an international perspective and to relate their understanding of art and beauty to their personal experiences,” said Dr. Kualapai. There are three Schreiner-sponsored Study Abroad trips scheduled for next year. York said she feels the trips are essential to a student’s education. “This can be a life-changing experience for students. It gives them a clear idea of how the United States fits in with the rest of the world,” said York. It can also reveal possibilities the world beyond college holds for them.

top